Facebook will hear and share your TV shows, movies, songs

Facebook is introducing a new mobile app feature that automatically listens for songs, TV shows and movies to share on News Feeds.

And if you’re listening to a music, your friends will get a playable 30-second clip of the song.

“That means if you want to share that you’re listening to your favorite Beyoncé track or watching the season premiere of ‘Game of Thrones,’ you can do it quickly and easily, without typing,” product manager Aryeh Selekman said in a Facebook news post.

There are already numerous apps like the popular Shazam, which matches songs, and Viggle, which recognizes TV shows. Now Facebook has created its own audio-matching software in another attempt to keep its 1.28 billion members engaged in the social networking platform.

And the software should provide the Menlo Park company with yet another source of rich data on its member’s habits and activities.

The feature is an extension of the “what are you feeling” status update prompts Facebook enhanced last year with selections like “I’m watching,” “I’m eating” and “I’m reading.”

Since then, “people shared more than 5 billion status updates that included these kinds of feelings and activities, sparking conversations with friends in a more visual way,” Selekman said.

A spokeswoman said Facebook the software taps into a mobile phone’s microphone to pick up the sounds of media content, but does not store the audio or match background noises and conversations.

For songs, the software posts clips only for songs in the current catalogs of Facebook audio partners Spotify, Deezer and Rdio.

For TV shows, the News Feed post also includes the season and episode number “so you can avoid any spoilers,” Selekman said.

He stressed several times that the feature, which is rolling out to iOS and Andriod phones in the U.S. in the coming weeks, is purely optional.

“Like with any post, you choose who can see it. You can also turn the feature off at any time by clicking the audio icon in the top right of the screen,” he said. “You’ll always get to choose whether you post to your friends.”